“The Matthew Shepard Act is a ham-handed attempt to right injustice by establishing different legal treatment for some classes of crime victims. The proposed statute classifies as ‘hate crimes’ attacks based on a victim’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. America is well on its way to making it illegal to say anything nasty about gays, Jews, blacks and women. ‘Hate speech,’ far short of any direct incitement to violence, is on the edge of being criminalized, with the First Amendment gone the way of the dodo.” (06/28/09)